Riley McGree

Riley Patrick McGree (born 2 November 1998) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as an attacking midfielder for EFL Championship club Middlesbrough and the Australian national team.

Born in Gawler, South Australia, McGree played youth football for Gawler, the FFSA NTC and Adelaide United before starting his professional career with Adelaide United in 2016. He joined Club Brugge of the Belgian top flight in 2017, and spent two loan spells back in Australia with Newcastle Jets and Melbourne City before returning to Adelaide United. That club sold him to Major League Soccer expansion franchise Charlotte FC, who loaned him to English Championship club Birmingham City for eighteen months, before selling him to Middlesbrough in 2022.

McGree was first called up to the Australian national team in 2017, having previously played for the under-17 side in 2013.

McGree was born and raised in Gawler, South Australia, to the north of Adelaide. He joined Gawler Eagles FC as a four-year-old after the town's Australian rules football club was full, and remained with the Eagles for eight years.

McGree made his debut for Adelaide United in the A-League on 19 March 2016 in a draw with Western Sydney Wanderers. He made his first start for the club in a 2016 FFA Cup loss to Redlands United on 3 August 2016, having been called up from the club's youth squad. Two weeks later, McGree signed a one-year senior contract with Adelaide. McGree scored his first goal for the Reds in his second A-League start, on 29 January 2017, with a shot from the edge of the area in a draw with Wellington Phoenix.

After impressing at Adelaide United, including being called up for the Australian national team, McGree left the national Australian league in July 2017 to join Belgian club Club Brugge.

On 19 December 2017, it was announced that McGree would be joining the Newcastle Jets on a short-term loan deal for the remainder of the 2017–18 A-League season, as an injury replacement for Jake Adelson. The transfer would be officially lodged in January, with him expected to join the squad in late January, due to his international commitments in 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.

In that season's A-League semi-finals, McGree became the subject of international attention after scoring with a scorpion kick, and which received a nomination for the FIFA Puskas Award for the most beautiful goal in the world that year.